YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Eric Garcia, Washington bureau chief and senior Washington correspondent at The Independent and an autism advocate, will address a March 19 gathering of the Youngstown Press Club.
The program will begin at 6 p.m. at the Tyler History Center, 325 W. Federal St.
Garcia, who is autistic and seeks to dispel myths about the condition, wrote a book titled “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.”
Garcia is also a columnist for MSNBC and previously was an assistant editor for The Washington Post’s Outlook section and an associate editor at The Hill. He has been a correspondent for National Journal, MarketWatch and Roll Call.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Garcia has also written for The Daily Beast, The New Republic and Salon.com.
The program’s moderator will be Sean Barron, a Vindicator reporter and photographer who was diagnosed with autism at age 5.
Barron wrote a book titled “There’s a Boy in Here,” which tells the story of his life with autism. He co-wrote with autism advocate Temple Grandin a book titled “The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism.”
Admission to the event is free and open to the public.
Reservations can be made at YoungstownPressClub.com, where copies of Garcia’s book can be ordered in advance for $21 each. The book-ordering deadline is March 4. Pre-ordered books will be distributed at the gathering, where Garcia will sign them after his presentation. No books will be sold at the gathering.
Event sponsors are Potential Development School for Students with Autism, the Autism Society of Mahoning Valley, The Rich Center for Autism and Denise and John York and the DeBartolo Corp.